Wiki Placename Problem

Most place names (toponyms) are a single word and so require tricks to make WikiNames out of them. This results in a lack of consensus, for example: BelgiumEurope vs IcelandCountry.

This is a special case of the WikiSingleWordProblem.

Space below reserved for proposals & discussion.

Consider that most place names do not need a WikiPage. Hence, this page is a DeletionCandidate.

It would be nice to have a format which 'reads' naturally. Perhaps TheCountryofIceland, which works well in sentences ("I've just come back from holiday in TheCountryofIceland"), but the problem with this is that it requires typing.

I'm really sorry for having caused all this fuss by removing the comma in Stockholm, Sweden (back in SwedishXpCommunity). The easiest way out would be to remove the entry on Iceland and CategoryCity all together. It is a whole different issue, though, that Java or C++ have to be rebaptized JavaLanguage and CeePlusPlus just because of the primitiveness of this wiki system. In my opinion (oh no, here we go again, I'm starting another HolyWar...), this is a typical example of people having to adapt to a stupid design of a software system. Now for something radical: if the running source code for this wiki were kept in a Wiki page (hello, JohnVonNeumann!), anybody could improve it, and we could soon have support for the {{Java}} and {{C++}} notation of other wikis. -- LarsAronsson

... And the system could quickly lose all its consistency as a result of being "designed" by a dozen different people all adding and removing features to suit their whims.

The restrictions on page names may not please you, but they aren't "stupid" either. The strict format is there for a reason.

It seems fair to say that the software is stupid. If it had an AI engine then it could use intelligence to identify links. But it's not AI, hence it's stupid. An intelligent design decision was to make a system that is not.

No one was arguing about whether the system is stupid. Lars said the design is stupid. The design is not stupid.

On http://everything2.com every word or phrase is a link if that page exists. This inverts the WikiName approach. Instead of clicking on the question mark, you have to explicitly create a new page. That is much more flexible.

This would instantly make me want to create pages for 'a', 'and', 'the', 'this' and 'that' :-)

And the problem with that would be ... ??

Lars, you have quite a number of intelligent possibilities:

you could talk Ward Cunningham into changing the scripts
you could let users vote about your suggestion
you could add content without caring too much about page names
you could create your own intelligent wiki clone and start your own wiki community

-- HelmutLeitner

Actually, a "reflective" Wiki which could be used to alter its own source code would be a very worthwhile thing. On the other hand, it is also most definitely and absolutely certainly a stupid idea and one that couldn't possibly work, ever ever.

Actually I find the idea of a ReflectiveWiki so fascinating I think it merits some discussion. -- MatthewAstley

Possible comprehensive solution using backticks has been moved to a page called FreeLink -- AnonymousOnPurpose